Trey Anastasio Band tour continued on Tuesday night with a performance at The Van Buren in Phoenix, AZ. The show featured the usual mix of favorites from across Trey Anastasio‘s TAB/Phish/Hands on a Hardbody/Ghosts of The Forest repertoires as well as another a cappella encore appearance of “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” from The Wizard of Oz.
The most interesting storyline to emerge from Trey Anastasio Band’s performance at The Van Buren, however, came from an onstage interaction between Trey and a particularly ambitious young fan/musician prior to set break.
25-year-old Andy Gonzalez is an Arizona-native musician, music teacher, and Music Education major at Arizona State University (Class of 2020). His first Phish shows were at Magnaball, and he currently leads a band called Benja Bloom Band, whom you can follow on Facebook or Instagram.
Leading up to the Trey Anastasio Band Van Buren show, Andy had been working on an ambitious musical exercise: transcribing all the instrumental parts to the seminal Phish epic, “You Enjoy Myself”, by ear. According to Gonzalez, the transcription process took roughly 30 hours over the course of three weeks—and “lots of editing”—to complete. Going into the concert, Gonzalez made it his mission to get his “YEM” transcription into the hands of the guitarist.
[Screengrab via Andy Gonzalez Facebook]
As Gonzalez explains to Live For Live Music, “I had listened and wrote out all the instrument parts to ‘You Enjoy Myself’ onto sheet music by ear. I felt confident enough in its accuracy that I wanted to give it to Trey as an act of appreciation.”
Armed with the bound transcription and its eye-grabbing cover page—emblazoned with the words “You Enjoy My YEM Transcription?”—Andy made his way to the front of the Van Buren crowd. During set one, Gonzalez attempted to catch Trey’s attention with the sheet music.
As Andy recalls, “Trey and I [communicated] through gestures, but during ‘Mozambique’ Trey sees it, clearly reads it, and his jaw drops. I motion for him to take it and he motions back that ‘not now’ but points to his head conveying he’ll remember it.”
As Trey walked offstage after set one, he made his way to the front of the stage to accept Gonzalez’s gift. As Andy recalls, “Right before Trey walks off for set break is when the exchange happened. I was shaking, it was so exciting.” Luckily, a fan standing nearby was able to capture a photo of the exchange:
[Photo: Lynne Haugh via Andy Gonzalez]
While Trey didn’t mention the flattering gift into the mic during set two, Gonzalez notes that “during the first song of the second set, he points at me, shakes his head approvingly, and says something positive with a huge smile on his face. I couldn’t be happier.”
The 2020 Trey Anastasio Band winter tour continues on Friday, January 24th at Austin City Limits Live at The Moody Theater in Austin, TX. For a full list of upcoming Trey Anastasio Band tour dates, head here.
UPDATE 1/23/19: On Thursday, in response to fan questions regarding his transcription, Gonzalez shared a video in which he breaks down the background of the project, details the transcription process, and presents portions of the sheet music alongside the corresponding audio. Watch the clip below:
Andy Gonzalez Breaks Down “You Enjoy Myself” Transcription
[Video: Benja Bloom Band]
UPDATE 1/28/19: On Monday, Trey Anastasio reached out to Andy Gonzalez to offer a message of gratitude and encouragement regarding the “You Enjoy Myself” transcription. Read Trey’s note below:
Setlist: Trey Anastasio Band | The Van Buren | Phoenix, AZ | 1/21/19
Set One: Sometime After Sunset, Cayman Review, Mozambique, Set Your Soul Free, Love Is What We Are, Magilla, Everything’s Right, Heavy Things, Undermind, Burn That Bridge, Gotta Jibboo
Set Two: Acting the Devil, Sand, Olivia > Blaze On > Alive Again, Brief Time, Valentine, A Life Beyond The Dream, Camel Walk, About to Run, Shine, Rise/Come Together
Encore: Somewhere Over the Rainbow [1], First Tube
[1] a cappella.